Mariachi Games out of Mexico will be putting on the VCONCERT 2014 Game Music Event tomorrow, November 8th out of Monterrey, and streaming live through Twitch! Starting at 4 o’clock CST, a lineup of 10 hours worth of music performances from some of the most iconic names in the game music industry will be broadcast online for the masses to enjoy, including composers Akira Yamaoka (Silent Hill, Shadows of the Damned) and Michiru Yamane. (Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, Skullgirls)

VCONCERT was started in 2012 by game music fans Mariano Latapi di Carlo and Poulette Roel through their videogame promotion agency, Mariachi Games. This year celebrates the event’s 3rd year of doing live performances. You can check out last year’s performance featuring the likes of Jake Kaufman, The One Ups and DisasterPEACE on Spotify for a taste of what to expect this year, be sure to tune in at 4pm CST to hear for yourself live!

If you’ve been in the video game music fan community for any given amount of time, you may know of the “Dwelling of Duels” competition. If not, Dwelling of Duels (or DoD for short) is a monthly competition for musicians and game music enthusiasts to participate in, requiring the submission to be both attuned to each month’s “theme” as well as the condition that at least one main instrument used be played live. (No purely computer-created pieces) Dating back as far as 2003, DoD has featured a myriad of colorful monthly themes, including months based around singular games themselves (Final Fantasy, Contra) to blanket months covering entire game publishers (Konami month, Sega month) to mash-up versus months. (Fire vs. Ice, Hero vs. Boss). The winner gets the prestigue of being on the front of the DoD website for the entirety of the following month and overall egotistical bragging rights. The competition has done well, promoting growth and diversity in the way of different types of game music covered, as well as giving video game musicians a fun outlet for creativity.

As of MAGfest 11, DoD is taking it a step further with “Dwelling of Duels Live”, which is almost exactly what it sounds like; a live performance of DoD tracks by DoD artists. Lead by Tony “Prince of Darkness” Dickinson (Contra 4: Rocked ‘n’ Loaded, Splatterhouse: Butchered), and featuring Alexander “housethegrate” Liss (Sonic 3 & Knuckles: Project Chaos), and Kunal Majmudar (The Smash Brothers, The One Ups) with a few as-yet-unrevealed additions, Dwelling of Duels Live will debut at MAGfest 11 with an ensemble of pieces composed by each artist from previous competitions. (And possible some new stuff exclusively for MAGfest!) The band’s debut happens to coincide with the coming of “Overclocked University” from Overclocked Remix featuring a similar setup, which will make for some very interesting highlights from both.

Dwelling of Duels Live performs Friday the 4th of January at 11am on the 2nd Stage, so be sure to bring your mug of coffee with you to enjoy some funky grooves and fresh metal mashings from some of the most seasoned warriors of the game music arrangement battlefield.

We all know Yuzo Koshiro as the composer: PC-8801 wizard who gave us The Scheme and Misty Blue, early Falcom icon who contributed to Ys and Sorcerian, Sega legend who put Streets of Rage and Shinobi music on the map, the man who composed Enix’s Actraiser, Super Adventure Island, and more recently Etrian Odyssey, 7th Dragon, and Wangan Midnight. Everyone is excited about the appearance of game music legend Yuzo Koshiro at MAGFest this January. But what will Mr. Koshiro actually bring to the DJ table? Since his DJ debut at LEGEND Game Music Club Event in Tokyo of 2002, where he ripped a very lengthy, badass Streets of Rage arranged set (featured in full-length on the recently published Bare Knuckle Original SoundtrackWM-0691~4), he has made several appearances at game music DJ events in Tokyo, namely Linear. Some may be surprised, however, at his past set lists, which have been known to include extensive amounts of Wangan Midnight, sparing amounts of Streets of Rage, free trance, even 90’s pop and house music that inspired him in his early career (ie. C&C Music Factory’s “Everybody Dance Now”). In his most recent DJ appearance, held at Area PicoPico 88: 5th Anniversary Festival in Tokyo last August, he spun 50 straight minutes of Wangan Midnight, a move that is technically safe from a DJ perspective, considering most of Wangan‘s music hovers around 140 BPMs and lends itself well to one another. However I think attendees at MAGFest will want to hear not only Wangan, but all of his famous works, including Etrian Odyssey, 7th Dragon, Streets of Rage, Shinobi, Super Adventure Island, and Actraiser — preferably arranged in awesome fashion. I had the pleasure of speaking with Mr. Koshiro at Pico 88 last August, however he offered no information on his upcoming set at MAGFest. Will he resort to “Wangan only” again? Veteran composer-DJs Shinj Hosoe, Ayako Saso, Akitaka Tohyama, and k.h.d.n. all have a knack for bringing a good amount of variety to the table. Let’s hope Yuzo does the same for his Western fans. (Personally, I think he should play some Vatvla.) What would you like to hear from DJ Yuzo Koshiro? Post your comments below.

[hey all, this was originally posted at 8bitx, I’m trying to get the word out as it’s something I’ve personally invested a lot of time into. So feel free to spread the word about this livestream!]

Please note: The Jurassic Hour will be doing its second ever *live* show. Stephen Meyerink and Don Kotowski will join me (Patrick Gann) as we listen to a total of 40 songs from the illustrious career of game music composer Yuzo Koshiro (who will be a guest at MAGFest 11 in January!). From Ys, Actraiser, and Streets of Rage all the way up to the Wangan Midnight Maximum Tune and Etrian Odyssey series, we’ll be covering a ton of Koshiro goodness and adding color commentary and our expert knowledge on this master composer.

Don’t miss this incredible 2 hour show! It will air during the normal 8bitx timeslot of Wednesday, 9pm ET. Please tell everyone you know about this show, and feel tree to even tweet the live show time and chatroom URL to Koshiro himself; who knows, maybe he’ll show up?!

Looking forward to Etrian Odyssey IV for the Nintendo 3DS? After checking out the game’s website and hearing the three samples from the soundtrack, I certainly am. The three samples sound remarkably similar to the Live Music by Piano and Strings Super Arrange Version album, and I immediately noticed the distinct lack of retro FM/PC sounds used.

Well, we contacted Yuzo Koshiro and have confirmation that the game will not be using retro synthesis, and will be relying entirely upon live performances paired with modern sample libraries. As it turns out, Norihiko Hibino, who arranged and coordinated the recording sessions for the Live Music by Piano and Strings album is on board for Etrian Odyssey IV and is essentially doing the same thing.

While it’s a bummer that we won’t be getting an FM version of the Etrian Odyssey IV soundtrack, I’m excited about the prospect of a 3DS title having such a high-quality and kick ass soundtrack. Samples two and three are particularly nice.

Izumi Tsukushi and Akio Shiraishi told us there would be several music releases over the course of 2012 to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Final Fantasy. We’ve already reviewed the first PIANO OPERA album, but this DVD recording celebrating the anniversary of Final Fantasy XI was actually the first release in this celebration.

Recorded on November 11, 2011 at the Vana Con event in Japan, this is a live recording of the one-off concert that took place to commemorate nine years of Final Fantasy XI.

Earlier this week, to kick off the release of Piano Collections NieR, Square Enix again held an event featuring team members from MoNACA and arranger/performer Kumi Tanioka performing a couple pieces from the album and talking at length about it and the original NieR soundtrack.

Last night I received a signed copy of the Battletech soundtrack from composer @JonEverist. It is an absolutely stunning release by @blackscreenrec! If you missed my review for the OST you can read it here @OSVgamemusic https://t.co/qSJyXOuFyo